Background Study: Romantic Age and Romantic Poetry English language has evolved over centuries.

The English language we know of today is completely different from what it was around 2000 years ago. Infact it looked and sounded something like Fder re e eart on heofonum - Father of ours, thou who art in heaven. It was generally spoken in this particular way in England and Scotland. It was heavily influenced by Latin and some other European languages in their old forms. Over the period of time English language changed with the cultural, economic and socio-political conditions in and around England. English language can be studied in terms of what poets, writers and philosophers had written in those days, so if they were deeply affected with what was going around, the mood, style and the usage of their language differed too. The history of English language is therefore divided into many ages, each of which has a particular characteristic. For instance, English literature around the time of Queen Elizabeth-I (1550-1620) was known as the Elizabethan Literature. The Elizabethan age is looked at as a time of intellectual liberty, growing intelligence, patriotism, comfort among all classes, and peace at home and abroad. Poet Edmund Spenser and playwrights like Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare were the greatest stalwarts of the Elizabethan age. The socio-economic and socio-political condition of the Elizabethan age is reflected in the general mood of the poetry and plays written at that time. Romantic Literature is referred to the literature written between 1800-1850. The essence of Romantic Age was characterized by need for freedom freedom from class distinction, freedom from imperialism, freedom from slavery, freedom from unjust laws, freedom from child labor, freedom of press and freedom of expression. This period was the time of the rise of Democracy when the colonized America gained independence from British rule. This was also the time of French Revolution for Liberty, Fraternity and Equality, in the favor of abolition of class distinctions and equality among all human beings. The French Revolution stirred all Europe to its depths and it proved to be a great movement in literature characterized by strong emotion. The Romantic Age was the time of Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, and it eventually spread to other European countries. The Industrial revolution completely changed the face of the world. It started with the mechanization of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. The agrarian economy of Britain turned into industrial economy. The social structure of the population was divided into the rich business class who owned machinery and mobilized workforces, the middle class factor workers who had increased employment opportunities and limited access to wealth and the poor farmers who could not keep with this intense growth in the industrial sector and its demands. Industrial revolution led to urbanization. The factories were set up at a faraway place and workforces migrated and relocated from villages to places near factories in search of employment. Hence the beauty of the English country-side with greenery of farms and fields started fading away to the rise of buildings, engines and factories. That is why you see great

poets of the time like William Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley lamenting over nature and its beauty. Characteristics of Keats Romantic Poetry The main idea of Romantic poetry was to emphasize intuition over reason and pastoral over urban. William Wordsworth defined poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. John Keats says, If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject. Keats is a pure romantic poet. He writes poetry for the sake of poetry. He believes in art for arts sake. He does not write poetry for any palpable design or any propaganda. His major concern is to give pleasure. It means that his chief concern is pleasure. Whereas some other romantics have been writing poetry for the propagation of their objectives as Wordsworth and Shelley were in the favour of French Revolution. But Keats is least concern with the social issues of life. Love for nature is the chief characteristic of all he romantics. Keats also loves nature but he loves nature for the sake of nature. He does not give any theory or ideology about nature. He only admires the beauty of nature. But on the other hand, Wordsworth spiritualizes nature, Coleridge finds some supernatural elements in nature, Shelley intellectualizes nature and Byron is interested in the vigorous aspects of nature. Keats was a pure poet as he does not project any theory in his poetry. Keats believes in Negative Capability the capability of being impersonal. Keats does not involve his personal feelings in his poetry. Keats is a sensuous poet. It means that he writes his poetry with his penta senses. We not only enjoy his poetry rather we can taste, touch, see and hear all the ideas presented in his poetry. We enjoy his poetry with all our penta sense. The whole of our body is involved in his poetry when we read him. Summary of Ode to Autumn Keats was inspired to write To Autumn after walking through the water meadows of Winchester, England, in an early autumn evening of 1819.The poem celebrates the special qualities of beauty and melancholy of the autumn season. The poem has three stanzas of eleven lines each describing the taste, sights and sounds of autumn. In the first stanza, the speaker dramatizes an overall description of autumn and what happens during that time of year. This stanza describes the settings of the season. Keats uses imagery to allow the audience to actually see and feel the joy of what he is describing. He has creates an aura of Natures beauty before the actual harvest. He says that the season secretly plots with the maturing Sun to fill all fruits with ripeness to the core. to swell the gourd and to plumb the hazel shells/with a sweet kernel gives the picture of a rich harvest ahead. It is as if the plants are bearing the fruits of joy which would burst forth and shower the entire world with happiness.

In the second stanza, the poet describes the figure of Autumn as a female goddess, often seen sitting lazily on the granary floor, her hair soft-lifted by the wind, and often seen sleeping in the fields or watching a cider-press squeezing the juice from apples. Here, Keats describes the wonderful activities of harvest. He uses personification to give human characteristic to the season. Autumn takes the form of a peasant woman and enjoys watching the promised picture of harvesting activities. The scene shifts from the granary floor to the corn fields where a harvester with his hook is reaping the crop of poppies overcome with exertion; he takes a nap Drowsed with the fumes of poppies. Next, the image of the gleaner is presented, walking across a brook carefully balancing the load of harvested corn on his head. Autumn in the human form sits near a cyder press patiently watching the juice of apples dripping from the press drop by drop. The steady dripping symbolizes the passing of the time. Keats has aptly visualized the mellow fruitfulness of the season. As the season is rich in its plenty, so is man. He is supremely content and happy. In the third stanza, Keats listens to the tingling sounds of the animals and insects. The poet shifts his focus again; he continues to address autumn as a person, but now he makes a one-point comparison of autumn with spring. He asks the question, Where are the songs of Spring? And then he repeats the question, Ay, where are they? The repetition makes the reader feel that the speaker is lamenting the loss of the song of spring, but then he admonishes the personified Autumn not to be concerned about those songs, because Autumn has its own music: Think not of them, thou hast thy music too. He compares the sounds of autumn to musical notes. And full-grown lambs loud beat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; And now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden Croft. Keats has succeeded in creating a serene picture of beauty and life that is associated with the season of autumn. We find ourselves in the immediate presence of Autumn experiencing the vigor and vitality of bountiful Nature. To Autumn accepts the inevitability of the cycle. And in the acceptance there is joy. Keats rejoices, first in the relationship of the season, sun, earth and then in the fruition that stems from that relationship. Keats has captured the essence of autumn in the poem. Surrounded by the explicit beauty of the Nature, listening to the marvel music of the season, John Keats has expressed the supreme delight and joy in creating the season of autumn.